Some photos from Julys past

 1999

 2000

2003

2005

2007

2008

2009

2012

On the way home from getting together with friends

Nate never met a collection of water...

...he didn't love.

I seriously love fireworks!

Adams Canyon hike

Love this baby boy

Phone photos ~ Part III

And one last post and two very miscellaneous phone photos. 

The day we had my niece over to play, we went out to dinner with my sister and her family and then 

to a nearby park for the kids to play for a while. It was such a fun night and I drove home still in awe

that we lived close enough to get together with family whenever we want to. What a blessing.

A few days later, Matt had his first official team soccer practice (he and Cam are playing 

club soccer in the town we are building our home in) and it happened to be at the field

next to the junior high both Jacob and I attended growing up. What a very strange feeling.

Phone photos ~ Part II

My darling niece came over to spend the day with us last week and we had such a great time 

with her. She and Annie are very similar in personality and I seriously love that girl. She is

as beautiful on the inside as the out for sure and I would keep her more than an afternoon

(more like ten afternoons--plus all the time in between) if her mom would let me. 

While she was here, we decided we needed to go try out a shaved ice place that is close by

and that seems very popular. They only had three sizes, so we asked how big they were. 

The girl taking our order held up a cup and pointed generally to give us an idea. We still

weren't exactly sure what she meant, so to be safe, we ordered each of us a small and

then feeling generous, decided to order a medium for the boys at home to share.

Um, yeah, so this was the small. We could not quit laughing when they 

called my niece's name and she walked up front to get her shaved ice.

But my laughter quickly turned to horror when they called my name and handed me

the medium we had ordered for the boys. Sweet shaved ice, how were we going to 

keep this in one piece during the short drive home? And an even better question, 

what in the world does the large look like? I'm hopeful we never find out.

But for the record, it really was the best shaved ice I have ever had.
(You should probably take into account I've had shaved ice one or two 

other times in my entire life, but still...it was something else.)

Phone photos ~ Part I

I don't take many photos with my phone. I'm sure I should, but it just isn't something I think about
often. So when we had our first accident involving my phone and a toddler (we've gone almost fifteen
years without a phone tragedy, so I'm grateful, but I was still sad to lose my phone that I've really loved),
I took the few photos off my old phone and decided to share them here. Just because they made me smile.

On the plane from MA to UT in May. I looked over a few minutes after takeoff and smiled
because of the sweetness and almost cried from the joy. A sleeping baby on a plane--the relief!

Nate absolutely loves our neighbors' dog. And while he is a big one, it is so gentle and calm and
 perfect for Nate to be around. Nothing better than the advantages of a dog, without having to own one.

Ben requested this photo after a haircut. I adore this boy so much. He is growing up

so fast, yet he still has that sweet, innocence about him. He sure makes us all happy.

Wastach Back: Ragnar Relay

This past Friday and Saturday, Jacob did something pretty awesome, in my opinion.

Ever head of the Wastach Back? Yeah, well Jacob and eleven of his new coworkers ran it.

And boy howdy, it was beyond impressive to me. Two hundred miles, twelve runners,

continuous running...believe me, I was impressed, but not wanting to join the party anytime soon.

Or ever. I don't think I could run two miles on only three or four hours of sleep, never name three

legs of a race that were definitely longer than two miles each and that had some scary hills involved.

We were able to go to see him in his last leg. Here he is coming our way.

He is either happy about all of our screaming or a little embarrassed.
Probably both. Which is why we yelled extra loudly.

All kidding aside, Jacob did absolutely awesome, considering he had already run two of his

legs and that he switched someone to run one of the longer last legs, with a big hill at the end.

He told me later his legs just kind of shut down the last three miles, but he didn't stop.

This is all of us (including his parents who live just ten minutes away from his final leg location) waiting

at the second spot along the way, waiting for him to come by again. This time with the kids' signs.

Here he comes again. And look at those mountains. It appears we live in Utah, folks.

This is after he ran past all of our cheering and yelling for the second time. I just

happened to catch a photo of him with his work van following him to the next water

drop off. Their motto on the side of the van was "our nerds are faster than your nerds."

And waiting for Jacob the third time. Again with the kids' homemade signs.

Here comes Jacob again and this time the kids decided to run a few seconds with him
(except for sweet Campbell who insisted on holding Nate so I wouldn't have to).

Just a few more feet running with their dad and then they would leave him to make it up the

big hill. I have to say, this part broke my heart. I was holding back tears knowing how

tired he was and what he had ahead. I knew he could do it, no doubt about it, but it was

still hard to see how worn his body was--even if his running times were still amazing.

(Oh, and I should add that just a couple of weeks ago, an orthopedic doctor told Jacob that

he had likely torn his meniscus and would soon need surgery to repair it. Not sure that

helped this pregnant lady and her emotions as she watched Jacob start up the hill.)

And finally, he came around the corner to the last few feet before he turned the

next leg of the race over to the next runner. It was pretty awesome to see.

We love you Jacob! Thanks for doing hard things, so we can all be motivated by how incredible you are!

Hiking close to home

Behind my parents' home is a hill that is really great for hiking. Jacob and the kids

have been up it more than once and the view is amazing every single time. 

There really are some great perks for being back in Utah.

Moving forward

Due to the incredible generosity of some sweet friends, this past weekend Jacob and I were able to fly back to Boston for him to be released as bishop and to see the new bishop of our wonderful ward being called. We were literally in Massachusetts for only 24 hours and it was worth every second.

Like I mentioned earlier, Jacob serving as the bishop of our ward in the Boston area made the prompting and decision to move to Utah incredibly difficult. So while it was a hard day, it was also an amazingly sweet day.

And not just because the new bishop is a man that we have admired from the moment we moved to the East Coast. He is good and kind and is exactly who the Lord wants to serve as bishop of the ward we have come to love so deeply. We are just sad we won't be there to witness what his humility and goodness will do for the ward and for his family.

How we will miss our ward members in Massachusetts. Yes, we know it is right for us to be in Utah at this time, but neither Jacob or I were prepared to feel the depth of sadness we have felt at leaving our friends from church. But as always happens, life moves on and everything will be fine. Especially our hearts. Which have started to feel like they are healing since our trip to Boston.

We are so grateful.

Moving companies and mashed potatoes

Sometimes it is really important for me to put something down on the blog that was significant to us, but the thought of sharing all of the details necessary makes me tired to think about. This is one of those times. But I really want to make sure and share that this because it was such a significant part of our big move across the country. So here goes the quick version, just to have a record of it.

We decided to hire a moving company to move all of our possessions from MA to UT. We packed every single thing ourselves and had it ready to go, but were grateful someone else was driving it across most of the US. We definitely wanted to use a major van line, just to ensure (or at least make more likely) that our things arrived on time and safely. Our contract told us exactly the four-day window we would get our things and it was guaranteed, so after everything was packed up and gone, we took the minimal things we had packed to get us through the next few days and flew off.

You can see where this story is going yes?

Our possessions were late in arriving. Really late actually. At least two weeks felt really late to us. Because of a mix up we still don't understand, our things did not even leave Massachusetts until a week after they were supposedly guaranteed to arrive in Utah.

Good gracious.

But after many a phone conversation and even a pretty firm email sent from yours truly (which for the record was not rude, but definitely firm, and resulted in apparently scaring a few grown men and getting the ball rolling), we have received everything in the world we own. And some compensation from a certain moving company for being so incredibly late.

And even though we don't own much (a very few of you know how many pounds of possessions we shipped and how crazy low we were told it was for a family of almost eight), it is still nice to have it with us in the same state. Especially because the house we are building should probably have a bed or two in it. As well as a couch. And maybe a table. And a potato peeler of course.

Because seriously, have you tasted my mashed potatoes?

Wait, maybe I should have offered those as a reward for anyone who actually succeeded in getting our things out of the state of Massachusetts.

I'm telling you, two weeks wouldn't have been the case. Two days maybe. Especially if my milk gravy had been a part of the deal.

Blast. I should have thought of that earlier.

Feeling sick in St. George

Our Nate had a rough first night in St. George. He was in our room and woke up about every thirty minutes fussing and moaning a bit. At first I thought it was because his crib was so close to us, but he would always go back to sleep within a few minutes. Around 4:30am, I realized it had nothing to do with his proximity to our bed. But the fact that his stomach was bothering him.

Without going into details, I'll just say that we were up with him from 4:30 on and his stomach was having a really hard time. At first I was worried that we would be leaving first thing in the morning, so as not to expose my grandma to his sickness. But within about 30 minutes, and again, without going into details, I realized that he did not have a stomach bug, but instead was just not used to a combination of car travel and food that is much less than nutritionally stellar.

Poor baby. It was really pathetic.

Finally, just before seven, he fell asleep and slept hard. And woke up looking and acting a lot like this:

This would be Nate boy asking for breakfast. I'm thinking he feels better for sure. And I would be right.

Thank goodness.

Hiking in St. George

Jacob took the three oldest hiking in Snow Canyon for a few hours on
Saturday afternoon. In 106 degree weather. Um yeah, glad they had a good
time. And glad my assignment was to stick with the younger boys and take
care of the baby girl that won't allow me to hike at this time. Good times for all.